Ex vivo effect of azithromycin in human leukocyte bactericidal functions.
Abstract
CONTENT ALERTS Receive: RSS Feeds, eTOCs, free email alerts (when new articles cite this article), more» Information about commercial reprint orders: http://aac.asm.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml To subscribe to to another ASM Journal go to: http://journals.asm.org/site/subscriptions/ ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY, Aug. 1995, p. 1906 0066-4804/95/$04.00 0 Copyright 1995, American Society for Microbiology Vol. 39, No. 8 Letter to the Editor We have previously reported the effect of azithromycin on some lymphocyte functions (4). By further analyzing the data of the same study, we have extended our investigation to assess the interaction of azithromycin and human leukocyte bactericidal functions. We investigated the ex vivo effect of the therapeutic dose of azithromycin on the normal phagocyte microbicidal mechanisms, particularly oxidative burst, using human phagocytes of peripheral blood. The research was designed as a controlled, double-blind, clinical trial. The study was performed with healthy female volunteers, aged 20 to 33 years. The volunteers were placed in the azithromycin (n 21) or the placebo (n 10) group. Azithromycin (CP-62 993/XZ-450) was obtained from Pliva (Zagreb, Croatia). Before and after the administration of azithromycin (500 mg daily for 3 days, orally) or placebo (starch), blood samples were taken and a phagocyte microbicidal test with Candida albicans (originally